Geospatial technology for the analysis of human activities and environmental change in Canadian cities and metropolitan regions

加拿大从世纪开始成为世界上城市化程度最高的国家之一。城市化的步伐，加上消费者在住房、就业和交通方面的选择，给政府带来了越来越大的压力，要求政府为交通和土地使用问题制定可持续的解决方案。加拿大城市目前面临的交通挑战包括：汽车使用增加、能源成本和消费模式、交通拥堵以及与人员和货物流动相关的排放。目前，北美的交通和土地使用规划和政策往往反映了关于城市形态和交通行为之间关系的假设。例如，城市规划者和政策制定者越来越多地将以城市的组织和密度以及住房和交通选择的可得性为中心的智能增长原则作为克服交通和土地使用挑战的一种方法。尽管公众对精明增长的效力越来越达成共识，但几乎没有证据表明，广泛应用精明增长原则将为加拿大人带来理想的结果。该研究计划涉及地理信息系统（GIS）软件开发和基于政策的研究，旨在提高广泛宣传和接受的交通和土地利用规划战略的有效性，以提高加拿大城市和地区的生活质量。方案目标包括：（1）开发基于地图的软件，用于描述城市中人类活动和交通决策及结果的地理模式，以及（2）应用该软件研究城市规划和交通工程对加拿大城市中家庭活动和旅行模式的影响。基于政策的研究将侧重于多样化和快速增长的大金马蹄区，这是安大略省的一个广阔的大都市区，包括加拿大一些最古老和最新的城市。

Canada emerged from the twentieth century as one of the most heavily urbanised nations in the world. The pace of urbanisation, coupled with consumer choices regarding housing, employment, and transportation, places mounting pressure on governments to develop sustainable solutions to transportation and land use issues. Current transport challenges facing Canadian cities include: increased automobile use, energy costs and patterns of consumption, traffic congestion, and emissions associated with the movement of people and goods. At present, North American transport and land use planning and policy often reflects assumptions about relationships between urban form and travel behaviour. For example, urban planners and policy-makers increasingly look to Smart Growth principles centred on the organization and density of cities, and the availability of housing and transport options, as an approach to overcoming transport and land use challenges. Despite rising public consensus around the efficacy of Smart Growth, there is little evidence to suggest that broad-based application of Smart Growth principles will yield desirable results for Canadians. This research program involves both geographical information systems (GIS) software development and policy-based studies aimed at enhancing critical discourse on the effectiveness of widely publicized and accepted transportation and land use planning strategies developed to improve quality of life in Canadian cities and regions. Program objectives include: (1) development of map-based software for describing geographical patterns of human activities and transportation decisions and outcomes in cities, and (2) application of the software to study the influence of urban planning and transportation engineering on patterns of household activities and travel in Canadian cities. Policy-based research will focus on the diverse and rapidly growing Greater Golden Horseshoe Area, a vast metropolitan area in the province of Ontario that includes a mix of some of Canada's oldest and newest cities.